Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

TV Notes

With just one night left in the February sweep ratings, NBC had no hesitation in declaring total victory yesterday, pointing to its enormous advantage over every other network during the month.

It was the ninth straight victory for NBC during a sweep rating month (a special rating period when the largest number of television stations are measured). Even so, NBC, which as of yesterday afternoon was reporting growth among its most important audience, 18- to 49-year-old viewers, seemed likely to be even with last February's figures in that category when the final numbers, including last night's, are counted.

At the same time, Fox boasted of its strongest performance in any sweep month since it became a seven-night-a-week network.

The news was far less positive for the two other networks. CBS declined from its overall performance of last February, and lost even more ground among the young viewers that advertisers prefer. CBS said it was off because it pre-empted fewer of its regular shows for specials.

ABC saw its downward momentum continue in February despite relying on a heavy complement of special movies to plug holes in its schedule. Even though many of those movies performed better than the ABC shows they replaced, the network still finished well behind Fox among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, ABC's target audience.

NBC was helped by its powerhouse lineup on Thursday, which produced the five highest rated regular shows for the month. The network also benefited from two movie events that occupied opposite ends of the television taste spectrum: the critically assailed mini-series ''Asteroid,'' and the critically acclaimed Academy Award-winning film, ''Schindler's List.''

Fox added several high profile events as well, including the film, ''True Lies'' and a heavy complement of specials that involved bodily harm on video. Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC's West Coast division, who in the past has labled these shows ''snuff specials,'' discounted Fox's showing in February because it relied so heavily on these specials (about 10 percent of Fox's schedule was made up of them, with titles like ''World's Scariest Police Chases'').

But Giles Lundberg, the senior vice presdient of research for Fox, noted that the network was most encouraged by the performance of such regular shows as ''The X-Files,'' ''Beverly Hills 90210,'' ''Party of Five'' and a new series, ''King of the Hill.''

Protests Over Nudity

Don Ohlmeyer also had harsh words yesterday for a Republican congressman from Oklahoma who criticized the network for broadcasting ''Schindler's list'' Sunday night because of its nudity and violence.

He was joined by a long list of supporters, inluding the American Jewish Congress, Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato of New York and the conservative author William Bennett, who has been among the most outspoken critics of explicit material on network television.

In a statement released on Monday, Representative Tom Coburn, co-chairman of the Congressional Family Caucus, said the broadcasting of the film brought network television ''to an all-time low, with full frontal nudity, violence and profanity being shown in our homes.''

Mr. Ohlmeyer said Representative Coburn's statement ''should send a chill through every intelligent and fair-minded person in America.'' In a telephone interview yesterday he said he was concerned about ''other people telling the public what they should and shouldn't see.''

A statement from the American Jewish Congress said Mr. Coburn ''has a perverse notion of what is offensive.'' The group's executive director, Phil Baum, said: ''This isn't 'Melrose Place,' Mr. Coburn. This is the Holocaust.''

Senator D'Amato said of Mr. Coburn's comments, ''This should not be the view expressed by anyone in public office.''

And Mr. Bennett said, ''These are unfortunate and foolish comments.''

''Schindler's List'' was broadcast with the first TV-M rating, which notified viewers of its adult content. The film, which had the third highest overall rating last week, brought in an audience that NBC estimated at 65 million people, the largest e for a nonsports program on television this season. (''E.R.'' and ''Seinfeld'' had higher ratings last week.)

An unusual crossover between two Disney-owned networks happens tomorrow night when ESPN, the cable sports network, will present a 90-minute ''town meeting'' on the subject of race relations in sports since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. The town meeting format is used often by ABC's ''Nightline'' -- and Ted Koppel of ''Nightline'' will moderate the ESPN special.